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Zinc may give your teenager a mental edge.
Researchers have found that adding the mineral zinc to the diets of middle schoolers led to improvements in their memories and attention spans. They reported the results at this year's Experimental Biology 2005 meeting.
Seventh graders given 20 milligrams of zinc five days a week for 10 to 12 weeks performed better on memory tasks and had longer attention spans than did those who did not receive zinc supplements, said James G. Penland, PhD.D., a research psychologist at the US Department of Agriculture's Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota.
Zinc has been studied in relation to motor function, thinking, and social skills in very young children and in adults, Dr. Penland says, but "this is the first study to look at that relationship in adolescence." These older children may be at risk for zinc deficiency, especially while undergoing rapid growth during puberty, he adds.
The current daily requirement for zinc is 11 milligrams for boys aged 14 to 18; 9 milligrams for girls aged 14 to 18; and 8 milligrams for kids aged 9 to 13, Dr. Penland notes.
His team studied 209 seventh grade boys and girls who consumed 4 ounces of fruit juice that came one of three ways: with no zinc, with 10 milligrams of the supplement, or with 20 milligrams of the mineral every weekday for 10 weeks. The children did not know if they got the juice with zinc or without.
The participants were then given a battery of tests to measure attention, perception, memory, and reasoning. Those given 20 milligrams of zinc answered questions on a visual memory task test 12 percent more accurately and quickly, compared to 6 percent for those not given extra zinc.
The group given 20 milligrams of zinc increased the number of questions answered correctly on a word recognition task by 9 percent, compared to 3 percent for the no-zinc group. The group that got just 10 milligrams a day of zinc did not show improved performance.
Some of the tasks involved tapping a key on a keyboard as quickly as possible, using a mouse to follow an object moving across the computer screen, learning and remembering lists of words, and categorizing objects.
Exactly how zinc improved performance is not known, Dr. Penland says. "Deficiencies of zinc alter the function of the hippocampus, which is associated with memory functioning," he notes.
Zinc also helps regulate cell growth, helps wounds heal, and boosts the immune system.
Another expert calls the study "out-of-the-box" thinking.
"This is news to me," says Dr. Ken Fujioka, director of nutrition and metabolic research at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. "I have not seen this type of study done, particularly in this age group."
But he cautions parents not to supplement their children with zinc without checking first with the pediatrician or family physician. "If you take too much zinc for too long, you can also run into problems," Dr. Fujioka says.
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Dr. Penland hopes more research will be done focusing on older children's dietary needs "because the dietary guidelines that are out there are simply not based on data collected directly from children, by and large. The recommendations [for children] are based on the best data available, but not the best data possible."
Always consult your physician for more information.
Adds Dr. Penland: "My advice to parents would be to look at their kids' diet and make sure it provides the recommended amount of zinc and other nutrients."
Good sources of zinc include meat, seafood, eggs, and milk, according to the American Dietetic Association.
Dr. Penland hopes more research will be done focusing on older children's dietary needs "because the dietary guidelines that are out there are simply not based on data collected directly from children, by and large. The recommendations [for children] are based on the best data available, but not the best data possible."
Always consult your physician for more information.
Children and teens are more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine if their parents also use the therapies, according to a new study reported in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
A 1997 study found that 42 percent of American adults reported the use of these types of therapies - and the rates were increasing. But, up until now, there has been little information on the popularity of these treatments among children and teens.
Researchers at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis analyzed 2002 claims data from two large private health insurers in Washington state.
Of more than 187,000 insured children, nearly 157,000 were listed on insurance claims. According to the researchers, just over 6 percent had visited a complementary or alternative medicine professional during that year.
"Not surprisingly, the most significant factor that determined whether a pediatric patient would use complementary or alternative medicine is whether an adult in the family used [it]," the researchers note. In fact, parental use was by far the leading factor associated with children's use, they say.
Boys were less likely than girls to use these therapies, they add, while children with cancer and low back pain were especially likely to try out alternative/complementary treatments.
"Although use of chiropractic and massage was almost always for musculoskeletal complaints, acupuncture and naturopathic medicine filled a broader role," the study authors say.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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